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I'd expect less activity around the MIPS port because it is, by and large, already fully functional and a first class citizen of Android, while RISC-V is still

I'd expect less activity around the MIPS port because it is, by and large, already fully functional and a first class citizen of Android, while RISC-V is still being fully bootstrapped. Further, software like Chrome/Chromium and V8 already have functioning MIPS ports, which will be (a lot of) additional work not currently being performed for RISC-V. Compared to RISC-V, almost everything in the Linux ecosystem should already "just work" on MIPS. I think it's fair to ask why there wouldn't be more development of MIPS, which is effectively a Chinese owned ISA at this point, since it's more mature than RISC-V, if not as "exciting".

xiphias2 6y ago
To quote Elon Musk: ,,The most entertaining outcome is the most likely''. I see just the opposite when I look around Reddit: MIPS is dying. Google Play services is not updated on it, and I don't see why people would port new games on it. You need neural networks running efficiently to run all the face swap algorithms (V in RISC-V was for vector support originally), GPUs supported (again a RISC-V GPU ISA extension is in development), JIT acceleration (J extension). If it's not exciting for developers, it won't win for consumer devices.
- codetrotter 6y ago
  I bought a ridiculously cheap Android tablet from AliExpress many years ago, and didn’t even know that Android on MIPS was a thing. Until I received the tablet in the mail and learned that it had a MIPS ISA CPU. Many apps on Google Play would not install on the device, because they were for ARM only. Things may have changed since then idk, I haven’t used Android in many years. But the experience at the time was, well... The tablet ended up in a drawer and has been sitting there since. I should add though, regardless of whether app compatibility is a problem or not still that app compatibility was not the main reason for relegating the tablet to sit in a drawer. The main reason was battery life. Not surprising given how cheap it was. And it was really slow. But those two things aren’t meant as a knock on MIPS. They obviously put in the cheapest CPU and the lowest capacity cheapest battery to make the tablet as cheap as it was. Just adding this to explain why I ended up not using the tablet for anything at all.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Basically Android is all about ARM nowadays, the only place where alternative CPUs matter is running on Chromebooks using Intel CPUs, and even there Google has a ARM JIT for dynamic translation for APKs that are ARM only. MIPS and Intel CPUs on Android phones and tablets are dead.
pjmlp 6y ago
MIPS is no longer relevant on Android, it is even no longer supported on recent NDKs.

xiphias2 6y ago

To quote Elon Musk: ,,The most entertaining outcome is the most likely''. I see just the opposite when I look around Reddit: MIPS is dying. Google Play services is not updated on it, and I don't see why people would port new games on it. You need neural networks running efficiently to run all the face swap algorithms (V in RISC-V was for vector support originally), GPUs supported (again a RISC-V GPU ISA extension is in development), JIT acceleration (J extension). If it's not exciting for developers, it won't win for consumer devices.

codetrotter 6y ago
I bought a ridiculously cheap Android tablet from AliExpress many years ago, and didn’t even know that Android on MIPS was a thing. Until I received the tablet in the mail and learned that it had a MIPS ISA CPU. Many apps on Google Play would not install on the device, because they were for ARM only. Things may have changed since then idk, I haven’t used Android in many years. But the experience at the time was, well... The tablet ended up in a drawer and has been sitting there since. I should add though, regardless of whether app compatibility is a problem or not still that app compatibility was not the main reason for relegating the tablet to sit in a drawer. The main reason was battery life. Not surprising given how cheap it was. And it was really slow. But those two things aren’t meant as a knock on MIPS. They obviously put in the cheapest CPU and the lowest capacity cheapest battery to make the tablet as cheap as it was. Just adding this to explain why I ended up not using the tablet for anything at all.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Basically Android is all about ARM nowadays, the only place where alternative CPUs matter is running on Chromebooks using Intel CPUs, and even there Google has a ARM JIT for dynamic translation for APKs that are ARM only. MIPS and Intel CPUs on Android phones and tablets are dead.

pjmlp 6y ago

MIPS is no longer relevant on Android, it is even no longer supported on recent NDKs.